Re: [Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Adam Turl]

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It seems to me the problem with the original article (Fowler's) was that in
trying to write an article that combined a class and gender analysis of the
issue she ended up counterposing them in a pretty crude and undialectical
way, unleashing a good amount of rhetorical ammo on a celebrity (rather
than the actual structures of power). Add into this the way the article was
promoted (as if it was promoted by a frat house) and one should be able to
understand the response. After all, women actually are oppressed and
objectified in this society. It doesn't mean that Counterpunch should be
permanently vilified or that St. Clair et al havent done good things
otherwise. It is too bad they saw this as an existential attack rather than
an opportunity for their website to actually host a debate about these
issues. For example, it would be good to have some new writing that
patiently unpacks the difference between opposing the objectification of
women and prudery. The latest response from St. Clair, however, does "dig
the hole deeper," and turns what might have been a crude mistake into
out-and-out red baiting. Whether you agree with the original  SW criticisms
of Fowler and CP or not they were a reasonable response to something that
was, if not sexist (although I think it was), certainly problematic for
people (socialist, anarchist, feminist, whatever) who claim to oppose
oppression in all forms.


On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> "...how quickly the prosecutorial mindset of those possessed by a
> poisonous manifestation of identity politics can congeal into a lynch mob.
> It’s something that my old pal Alexander Cockburn knew intimately. In 1990,
> Alex was invited to speak by a gang of puritanical Trots at Reed College in
> Portland, a city almost paralyzed by the conventions of political
> correctness...
>
> "The invitation was a setup. Instead of a lecture, a self-appointed
> tribunal had been convened to put Alex on trial for his series of
> provocative columns in The Nation, which denounced the sexual witch-hunts
> sweeping the country in the wake of the McMartin pre-school case. Along
> with the great Debbie Nathan, Alex was one of the very few journalists to
> slash through the toxic hysteria and expose the accusations as fraudulent
> claims cooked-up by politically-motivated social workers and therapists. At
> the time, Alex was derided as an 'anti-feminist,' but he was proved right.
> There were no apologies from his accusers.
>
> "That case was deadly serious. L’affaire Jolie is comically absurd..."
>
>
> On May 31, 2013, at 8:03 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
>
> > http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/31/the-shame-merchants/
>
>
> 
> Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
> Set your options at:
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>

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[Marxism] David Graeber pisses off Danny Goldberg

[Louis Proyect]

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Goldberg is the quintessential Hollywood liberal.

http://www.thenation.com/article/174599/anarchy-project


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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Shane Mage]

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On May 31, 2013, at 3:04 PM, Thomas Bias wrote:


For those not fluent in hypertext markup language, the Greek word is:
Βατραχομυομαχία. For those not fluent in Greek (as I  
am not), I can't help

you!


"Βατραχομυομαχία"--a battle between frogs and mice.



Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64






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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Thomas Bias]

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For those not fluent in hypertext markup language, the Greek word is:
Βατραχομυομαχία. For those not fluent in Greek (as I am not), I can't help
you! And for those of us concerned with jobs, saving our earned benefits,
the right to organize and strike, and redirecting federal money from war to
human needs, all I can say is, if you want to talk about Angelina Jolie's
decision in terms of the health care "system" and fighting for a true
single-payer national health plan, that could be a good discussion.
Otherwise, don't waste our time. ~Tom

-Original Message-
From: marxism-bounces+tgbias=verizon@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces+tgbias=verizon@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu] On
Behalf Of m...@smithbowen.net
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 2:52 PM
To: Tom Bias
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

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> CP's mutual disinterest or inability to engage in a discussion about 
> how to fight sexism is more surprising and disappointing than the 
> predictable, tired out pot-shots at the ISO

The Greeks had a word for it:
Βατραχομυομα`
7;ία.

> and anyone who dares defend or agree with us.

'Dares' is good. Like all those Quadrangle Club desperadoes who signed the
communique passed along (in extenso!) earlier today.



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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[mjs]

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> CP's mutual disinterest or inability to engage in a discussion
> about how to fight sexism is more surprising and disappointing
> than the predictable, tired out pot-shots at the ISO

The Greeks had a word for it:
Βατραχομυομαχία.

> and anyone who dares defend or agree with us.

'Dares' is good. Like all those Quadrangle Club desperadoes who
signed the communique passed along (in extenso!) earlier today.



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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Mark Lause]

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It's bad enough that the tone of this discussion has sounded like one side
is using an editorial issue to draw the proverbial "class line."  And this
sounds like it's reached the point where ISO members feel obligated to
demonstrate their loyalty to the group by not having this kind of
discussion with non-members.

As a long-standing sympathizer and supporter, I would hate to see that.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Dan R]

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I really think your charming personality is what brings the boys to the
yard, Louis. Good luck with any other gender identities.

I'm glad there were at least a couple of folks who have the ability to see
that this debate is about more than the word 'tits.' Your and CP's mutual
disinterest or inability to engage in a discussion about how to fight
sexism is more surprising and disappointing than the predictable, tired out
pot-shots at the ISO and anyone who dares defend or agree with us.

Pathetic, really.

By the time I joined the ISO a few years ago you'd won me to what I thought
was a principled 'anti-sectarianism' - looking hopefully to the NPA, et al
- but which now seems just as dry and dogmatic as any sect. Marxmail was
the first place I engaged in or witnessed discussions between other
Marxists, so I've stuck around out of a certain loyalty and nostalgia but
these days have far better things to do with my time. Facebook activism is
more work than it seems, you know.

Don't expect to see me reading the archives.

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[Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[michael yates]

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Dan said he tried to unsub. Must not have tried too hard. But, please, unsub 
away. No doubt, you'll want to write up your thoughts beforehand, such as they 
might be. 

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Re: [Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Louis Proyect]

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On 5/31/13 1:16 PM, Dan R wrote:

I actually tried to unsub from the list after reading the responses to this
pathetic (at least from CP's side) debate but it didn't work. I'll wait to
try again when I have time to write up my own thoughts. Meanwhile...



What's the point? You know that you will be reading the archives 
obsessively just like the 3 people who unsubbed in protest over my 
threat to give Vivek Chibber a wedgie. It is common knowledge that 
anybody who has been subbed to Marxmail for more than six months is 
hooked for life. It is far more addictive than crack cocaine. Why? It is 
the only place where you can actually find people reaming each other out 
over political differences, as opposed to an ISO meeting with everybody 
clapping like trained seals for a party leader or an invited celebrity.




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Re: [Marxism] Bolivia: A break in the biggest workers’ action of the last twenty years

[Segis Mundo]

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"If Russia's future was so problematic, who in their right mind expects
"socialism" to be built in a country with 10 million people and a GDP (24
billion dollars) less than half of Facebook's stock valuation (58 billion)?"

I don’t know, you should ask your 3rd wordlist friends… but really I’m not
here out to convince you Proyect (hah, the thought makes me chuckle), I’ve
had my fair share of useless attempts at engaging with the self-touted
“anti-sectarian” commentators in the anglo left.

The question is not whether socialism is around the corner, which certainly
it isn’t, but what is the kind of working class (or if you prefer, working
peoples’) political action necessitated by the circumstances in these
“3rdworld” nations which are determined by the accumulation of capital
globally. Is it to tail the leaders who self-proclaim themselves as
liberators (whether in good will or not), but which must objectively
represent the backward “rentier models” tried countless times already? Or
is it to actually get rid of the rentiers altogether (which of course
doesn’t imply socialism of the 21st, 22nd, etc. century)?

But like I said, I got no interest in trying to engage self-hating ex-trots
who think the solution is a Maoist ideal to create a revolutionary
bourgeoisie out of nowhere; and who’d omit the concrete reality in these
countries just so they can plug their tired abstract “anti-sectarianism”
all the way from the US. Anyway, I’m sure you know better than the Bolivian
miners who are of course a bunch of sectarian CIA infiltrated goons.


On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 9:46 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> ==**==**==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==**==**==
>
>
> On 5/31/13 12:33 PM, Segis Mundo wrote:
>
>> I am not a Trostkyist, contrary to the straw man which the moderator
>> implied in a previous post and I don’t wholly agree with the analysis, but
>> I think these events are a telling balance sheet on the project of, as
>> Garcia Linera puts it himself, Andean developmentalist capitalism, but
>> which quasi-Trot and 3rd wordlist commentators will proclaim ‘Socialism!’
>> of the 21st century.
>>
>
> I actually doubt that socialism can arise out of a deeply impoverished and
> militarily vulnerable country like Bolivia or even Venezuela. When I hear
> sectarians bandy about the term, I really wonder if they have ever read
> Trotsky.
>
> "But how far can the socialist policy of the working class be applied in
> the economic conditions of Russia? We can say one thing with
> certainty--that it will come up against obstacles much sooner than it will
> stumble over the technical backwardness of the country. Without the direct
> State support of the European proletariat the working class of Russia
> cannot remain in power and convert its temporary domination into a lasting
> socialistic dictatorship."
>
> If Russia's future was so problematic, who in their right mind expects
> "socialism" to be built in a country with 10 million people and a GDP (24
> billion dollars) less than half of Facebook's stock valuation (58 billion)?
>
>
> __**__
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> Marxism@greenhouse.economics.**utah.edu
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>

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[Marxism] Film takes aim at Mexico's one percenters

[Louis Proyect]

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NY Times May 30, 2013
Americas | Mexico City Journal
Comeuppance for the Rich, at Least on the Screen
By ELISABETH MALKIN

MEXICO CITY — “Why are they taking everything away from us, like in 
Venezuela?” wails Barbie Noble, a spoiled rich girl crammed into a 
getaway cab with her two brothers as the family flees a police raid on 
their sumptuous mansion.


A business scam, all the money is lost, explains her father, twisting 
around from the front seat to break the news to his 20-something 
children slouched in the back.


Dusk is falling as their decrepit cab bounces across this city, and from 
the window, the Noble children watch a collage of misfortune and decay: 
graffiti splashed across crumbling cement walls; weary vendors packing 
up market stalls; ragged workers trudging home over pockmarked pavements.


That trip is the only serious moment in the Mexican farce “We Are the 
Nobles,” a movie hit here that inflicts blunt trauma on any suggestion 
that Mexico may soon emerge as a middle-class country.


“You have an elite few that control everything,” said the film’s 
director and its main screenwriter, Gaz Alazraki, 35. “These few 
families have not generated a good partnership with the government so 
that a big middle class will develop in the country. You have just a big 
division between wealthy and poor, which replicates itself in Brazil, 
Argentina, in Latin America in general.”


Almost 6.5 million people have seen “We Are the Nobles,” making it the 
highest-grossing Mexican film ever in cinemas here. It is still filling 
multiplexes 10 weeks after its release.


Few people in this country tiptoe around the fact that Mexico’s rich and 
poor inhabit distinct worlds, sharing little more than a taste for 
traditional food and a perennial disappointment over their almost-great 
national soccer team. In the movie, Mr. Alazraki does not even allow 
them the same food.


Minutes before Barbie’s credit card is cut off, she harangues a waiter 
for bringing her melted goat cheese. Days later, the bankrupt Noble 
children are camping out with their father, a self-made construction 
millionaire, in the ruins of his childhood home, dining on tortillas 
drenched in oil. “It tastes like beans,” he urges.


In fact, the Noble children are as rich as ever. Their father, Germán, 
has become distraught over their idle arrogance and wants to teach them 
a lesson, so he invents a story about losing his company and sends them 
all out to get a job.


The eldest son, Javi, drives a battered bus through the streets of 
Mexico City. Barbie squeezes into a minidress to wait tables at a 
cantina, and the youngest son, Cha, becomes a clerk in the neon-lighted 
back office of a bank.


Their guide to this new life is Lucho, the nephew of their ancient 
nanny. He gets up before dawn to buy food in the city’s vast wholesale 
market, cooks at the cantina all day, and then caters parties for the 
rich all night.


His schedule is no surprise to most working-class Mexicans. The 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that 
Mexicans work more hours than any other nationality surveyed.


Photo

Actors rehearsed on the set. Warner Bros Pictures Mexico

The simplest explanation for the movie’s success is that audiences love 
to see rich people humiliated. But a more complex dynamic is at work in 
the nuances of Mexico’s multiple layers of class and perception.


“I think the real reason the film is so successful is that it’s 
cathartic for the middle class,” said Gustavo García, a film critic and 
historian. “It captures the fears and fantasies of the middle class.”


Indeed, this is a country where repeated financial crises over decades 
have generated a steady background hum of anxiety for members of the 
middle class, who are one devaluation or layoff away from poverty.


Mexico has made some progress over the past decade in raising incomes 
for the very poor, which means that overall inequality has decreased. 
But the top 20 percent of the population still earn 53.4 percent of the 
total national income, according to statistics from the Economic 
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The 40 percent of the 
population below the wealthy, the segment where one would expect to find 
the middle class, make 33.6 percent of national income.


“The middle class here does not exist,” said Ana Suárez, a 27-year-old 
lawyer who pronounced the movie “the absurd of the extremes of the two 
classes.”


“The children of the upper classes don’t know how to do anything, except 
party,” said Arturo García, 44, a collections agent, who enjoyed the 
movie. “I have dealt with people like that at work. We call them 
‘daddy’s children.’ ”


Mr. Alazraki, the movie’s director, admits to bearing a passing 
r

[Marxism] Police Attack Protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square

[Louis Proyect]

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NY Times May 31, 2013
Police Attack Protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square
By TIM ARANGO and CEYLAN YEGINSU

ISTANBUL — Police officers attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators on 
Friday in Istanbul’s Taksim Square with water cannons and tear gas, 
sending scores of people, protesters and tourists alike, scurrying into 
shops and luxury hotels and turning the center of this city into a 
battle zone at the height of tourist season.


The police action was the latest violent crackdown by the government 
against a growing protest movement challenging plans to replace a park 
in Taksim Square, Istanbul’s equivalent of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, with a 
replica Ottoman-era army barracks that would house a shopping mall.


But while the removal of the park, which is filled with sycamore trees 
and is the last significant green space in the center of Istanbul, set 
off the protests at the beginning of the week, the gatherings have 
broadened into a wider expression of anger against the heavy-handed 
tactics and urban development plans of the government and its leader, 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His party, now in power a decade, 
is increasingly viewed by many Turks as becoming authoritarian.


Mr. Erdogan still has great support among Turkey’s religious masses, but 
secular critics cite his government’s sweeping prosecution and 
intimidation of journalists as evidence of its intolerance of dissent.


Much of the anger also centers on the struggle over Istanbul’s public 
spaces. Mr. Erdogan’s government has preceded with disputed urban 
development plans with little public input, while his police forces have 
increasingly used tear gas against peaceful protesters, resulting in 
scores of injuries, including the hospitalization on Friday of a Kurdish 
lawmaker, who had become a vocal participant in the protests, after he 
was hit by a tear gas canister.


The protest movement comes amid continued public anger at Turkey’s 
policy of supporting the rebels in Syria, which many Turks feel has led 
to a violent spillover inside Turkey, including recent car bombings in 
the southern city of Reyhanli, which killed dozens of people. The rising 
public disenchantment represents a significant political challenge to 
Mr. Erdogan, who is planning to run for the presidency next year and has 
been trying to alter the Constitution to create a more powerful 
presidential system.


In the early afternoon Friday, as protesters gathered and began shouting 
antigovernment chants, police officers in riot gear began surrounding 
the group, positioning vehicles that resembled tanks at the edge of the 
square around the protesters, who were mostly sitting.


“Taksim is ours, we are not giving it to the A.K.P.!” they chanted, 
referring to Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development 
Party, known as A.K.P.


As they chanted, police officers casually put on their gas masks and the 
operators of the tanklike vehicles aimed their big guns, which fire a 
mixture of water and tear gas, at the group. Then chaos erupted. 
Protesters and onlookers, some of them tourists, ran down side streets 
where shopkeepers offered sliced lemons to soothe the burning sensation 
of the gas, and pharmacists doled out ointments for skin burns.


“The pigs, the pigs,” said Esra Yurtnac, who was crying as she sought 
refuge in a bakery after being gassed. “All they know is how to use gas.”


She added, “They think they can silence us with force, but they won’t.”

Hours after the clashes with protesters, an Istanbul court on Friday 
ruled in favor of a petition by a local advocacy group and halted the 
project until parties submitted their legal arguments to court, the 
semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported. The interior minister also 
pledged on Friday that claims of excessive force would be investigated.


The chaos followed a dawn raid on an Occupy Wall Street-style encampment 
in Gezi Park, near Taksim, in which the police also used tear gas to 
drive away protesters and later barricaded the park. In an earlier raid 
on the camp, on Thursday, the police set fire to some tents. The brief 
occupation of the park, which began after bulldozers had started to take 
down trees, had taken on a festival-like atmosphere, with yoga, 
barbecues and musical performances, while the gathered changed, “Taksim 
is ours! Istanbul is ours!”


The people adorned the camp with banners expressing the rising anger at 
the reshaping of Istanbul’s urban spaces by the government. One read, 
“Don’t touch our neighborhood, our squares, our trees, our water, our 
soil, our homes, our villages, our cities and our parks.”


Another referred to Mr. Erdogan and the growing number of shopping malls 
being built around the city. “Let all shopping malls crumb

[Marxism] Statement: Refusing to Accept Sexism

[Dan R]

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==


I actually tried to unsub from the list after reading the responses to this
pathetic (at least from CP's side) debate but it didn't work. I'll wait to
try again when I have time to write up my own thoughts. Meanwhile...

http://socialistworker.org/2013/05/27/refusing-to-accept-sexism

RUTH FOWLER has used two CounterPunch columns to criticize Angelina Jolie
for writing a *New York Times* essay to discuss her decision to have a
double mastectomy, while not recognizing and acknowledging: 1) the economic
means she holds to undergo an expensive medical procedure other women can't
afford; and 2) that a corporation called Myriad Genetics is generating
enormous profits by driving up screening tests for breast cancer. Fowler
argues that these contradictions undermine Jolie's credibility to speak for
survivors of breast cancer.

We disagree.

First and foremost, all medical patients diagnosed with potentially fatal
illnesses deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Jolie deserves
respect as someone who spoke out bravely about the difficult decision to
have a double mastectomy rather than risk getting breast cancer. Fowler
fails to acknowledge this and uses Jolie's celebrity to try to strip her of
her fundamental humanity. The title of her first
article,
"Angelia Jolie: On Privilege, Tits, and Being Dumb," reduces Jolie to a
pair of "tits" in a move not that different from the sensationalist media
that routinely objectifies women.

As Sharon Smith noted in her critique of Fowler's original
piece,
which CounterPunch refused to post, "[U]sing boob jokes to introduce an
article about undergoing a double mastectomy to prevent a potentially
deadly disease constitutes a descent from sexism to misogyny."

Julian Vigo, in her response to
Smith,
focuses her critique on the use of the term "tit," defending its use by
Fowler and responding with what we expect a typical male undergraduate
student to say when first introduced to the notion of women's
objectification: "CounterPunch also uses titles with 'dick,' 'penis,' and
'cock' in them."

The problem with these articles in CounterPunch is that they use a left
cover to recycle sexist tropes while hiding behind class outrage.

Second, Fowler ruthlessly attacks Jolie's apparent ignorance about the
sexist machinations of the medical industry without noting that a lack of
information under capitalism is fairly common. Information about
pharmaceutical companies and the role they play in shaping our health care
"choices" are neither easily accessible nor discussed openly in mainstream
media. While Jolie surely could have done more "homework" on the health
care system before writing her piece, we should acknowledge that Myriad
Genetics and the health care industry are what deny women access to good
health care, not Jolie.

Since Jolie's article, there has been widespread media coverage of breast
cancer as well as preventative measures open to women. Surely, as feminists
we should welcome this development. Additionally, the ACLU has taken Myriad
to court  about its
patent monopoly, creating an opening to critique the for-profit health care
system.

Third, Fowler ridicules Jolie's wealth and celebrity in a mean-spirited
effort to discredit her attempts to educate other women about how to
preserve personal dignity in the face of medical trauma.

When women negotiate the health care industry, they face a double jeopardy:
the everyday scrutiny of female bodies and sexualities are heightened and
pathologized. To this is added the fear and horror of care being solely
determined by affordability.

Any attempt to shed light on this difficult process, regardless of the
class of the person that it comes from, should be welcomed. When a
"celebrity" such as Jolie speaks about double mastectomy not affecting her
femininity, she is bringing relief to many women who are caught in this
trap of gender and class. And because she is a celebrity (who need not have
exposed herself to such scrutiny, we might add), she created a larger space
in the mainstream media to reflect on these issues.

To be sure, Angelina Jolie is not a revolutionary. Nor is she, quite
probably, what we could agree is a feminist. What we wish to defend in this
statement is less Jolie and her politics, but rather her boldness in coming
forward and the opening that has created to discuss this painful issue.

We are disappointed that CounterPunch has run three articles on this
question, but has refused to spend a second being self-reflexive about the
sexism

Re: [Marxism] Bolivia: A break in the biggest workers’ action of the last twenty years

[Louis Proyect]

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Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On 5/31/13 12:33 PM, Segis Mundo wrote:

I am not a Trostkyist, contrary to the straw man which the moderator
implied in a previous post and I don’t wholly agree with the analysis, but
I think these events are a telling balance sheet on the project of, as
Garcia Linera puts it himself, Andean developmentalist capitalism, but
which quasi-Trot and 3rd wordlist commentators will proclaim ‘Socialism!’
of the 21st century.


I actually doubt that socialism can arise out of a deeply impoverished 
and militarily vulnerable country like Bolivia or even Venezuela. When I 
hear sectarians bandy about the term, I really wonder if they have ever 
read Trotsky.


"But how far can the socialist policy of the working class be applied in 
the economic conditions of Russia? We can say one thing with 
certainty--that it will come up against obstacles much sooner than it 
will stumble over the technical backwardness of the country. Without the 
direct State support of the European proletariat the working class of 
Russia cannot remain in power and convert its temporary domination into 
a lasting socialistic dictatorship."


If Russia's future was so problematic, who in their right mind expects 
"socialism" to be built in a country with 10 million people and a GDP 
(24 billion dollars) less than half of Facebook's stock valuation (58 
billion)?



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Re: [Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[mjs]

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> I've been a hard-core Cannonite for almost 40 years...
> predisposed to sniffing out faults in other wings of the
> Trotskyist tradition  So I expect to be taken
> seriously


Bit of a lacuna in the logic here.



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[Marxism] What does it mean to be a Leninist?

[Louis Proyect]

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Ian Birchall responds to Alex Callinicos's Zinovievist bullshit.

http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12330

There's also a reply to Edward Rooksby's article in the last issue of 
the SWP's magazine that advocated an approach similar to the IS Network.


I think it is quite clever for the SWP to open up its pages in this way. 
It is part of their rehabilitation, saying to the world that they are 
willing to engage with their critics both externally and internally.


Me, I ain't buying...


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Re: [Marxism] Bolivia: A break in the biggest workers’ action of the last twenty years

[Segis Mundo]

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I wanted to thank compañero Gallardo for his post. I was about to post a
comment in reply to the greenleft piece by Federico Fuentes which was
posted before that and which I found a sorry exhibit of shameless
cherry-picking, especially when written right after the protests by
thousands of miners, teachers and students; a disgraceful gesture indeed.

I am not a Trostkyist, contrary to the straw man which the moderator
implied in a previous post and I don’t wholly agree with the analysis, but
I think these events are a telling balance sheet on the project of, as
Garcia Linera puts it himself, Andean developmentalist capitalism, but
which quasi-Trot and 3rd wordlist commentators will proclaim ‘Socialism!’
of the 21st century.

Of course, this kind of thing makes no dent at all on the revolutionary
program of developmentalism which steadily marches toward the completion of
the unfinished bourgeois revolution through socialist methods, like
hyper-inflation.

Sigh… would that Bolivian miners be deserving of the advanced theory of
developmentalism, perfected by the great masters and theorists of
revolution of the Anglophone internet left.

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[Marxism] Jesse Friedman Spent 13 Years in Prison as a Notorious Child Rapist -- He May Soon Get an Apology - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice

[Louis Proyect]

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The Village Voice is probably on its last legs and won't be missed but 
this article on the Salem Witch trials like persecution of Jesse 
Friedman is a throwback to when the paper really mattered.


http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-05-29/news/jesse-friedman/




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Re: [Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Louis Proyect]

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On 5/31/13 9:19 AM, Andrew Pollack wrote:

So fuck off, Counterpunch.


I wonder why people like Andrew and Dennis Brasky have so much trouble 
making substantive contributions on the issues under debate. Maybe it is 
because they really have no answers to Ruth Fowler's arguments? Does 
Andrew thing it was wrong for Jeff to not override her use of the word 
"tits"? What about the group Pussy Riot? Maybe I was wrong to write an 
article for CP (my first actually) taking up their cause when they call 
themselves such a sexist term. Should they have named themselves Vagina 
Riot instead?









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Re: [Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Andrew Pollack]

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How much deeper are these assholes going to dig their own grave?

It's bad enough to continue, indeed intensify, the sexist boys' locker-room
jocularity.
But to add to it lies about the ISO's politics, practice, and race and
class composition, is just garden-variety Stalinism.

I've been a hard-core Cannonite for almost 40 years, and therefore speak as
someone who is predisposed to sniffing out faults in other wings of the
Trotskyist tradition where they can be found. So I expect to be taken
seriously when I say that, having seen the ISO in various cities and
movements since their founding, their work in the labor movement in recent
years has been, from what I can see, nothing short of inspirational.

So fuck off, Counterpunch.

Andy P.

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Re: [Marxism] Answers needed in death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev acquaintanc e - The Washington Post

[Jim Farmelant]

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To my mind something smells about the whole relationship between the FBI and 
the Boston Marathon bombings. The FBI by its own admission had been in contact 
with deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev back in 2011, presumably after having 
been tipped off by the Russians. I am very curious as to what the nature of 
those discussions between Tsarnaev and the FBI were about. We do know that 
since the 9/11 attacks, the typical MO of the FBI in regards to terrorism has 
been to pursue entrapment-type cases against people they suspected of having 
terrorist inclinations. Typically, what the FBI did was to cook up its own 
terrorist plots and then attempt to entice gullible people into participating 
in them. In many of these cases, the FBI would go as far as to provide the 
people that they had enticed  with equipment and materials to construct 
(non-working) bombs. I cannot help but think that they might have attempted to 
entice Tamerlan Tsarnaev into participating in one of these "phony" plots, over 
which the FBI may have subsequently lost control. Meanwhile, it seems awfully 
convenient to me that that this associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev should have 
gotten himself killed by FBI agents. As many people here probably know, the 
Boston office of the FBI has a decades long history of notoriety for 
incompetence and its corruption.

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
http://www.foxymath.com 
Learn or Review Basic Math



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[Marxism] The Merchants of Shame » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Louis Proyect]

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“But why can’t Ruth use the word ‘tit’? She’s a big time writer. Sold 
more books than any of those ISOers. Maybe all of them combined.”


“Fowler can use the word, but we can’t print it. Because we’re, well, men.”

“So, we’re supposed to correct Ruth Fowler’s word choice for her?”

“Yep.”

“The two of us, both male editors, are supposed to commit an editorial 
intervention on her prose? She’s from Wales, right?”



http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/31/the-shame-merchants/


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[Marxism] Hanging With Free Cooper Union | The Billfold

[Louis Proyect]

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Like the six floors below it, the seventh floor of the Cooper Union’s 
Foundation Building has been transformed into an art gallery—Tuesday 
night was the first night of the annual Cooper Union End of Year Show. 
The seventh floor is not listed on any official materials, however, 
because for the past three weeks it has been occupied by students 
protesting the proposal that the school begin charging undergraduate 
tuition, a violation, they feel of the Cooper Union’s stated mission: 
“The College admits undergraduates solely on merit and awards full 
scholarships to all enrolled students.”


http://thebillfold.com/2013/05/hanging-with-free-cooper-union/


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[Marxism] Bolotnaya Farce | Opinion | The Moscow Times

[Louis Proyect]

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Putin cracks down on peaceful dissenters.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/bolotnaya-farce/480807.html


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[Marxism] Reinhart And Rogoff's Pro-Austerity Research Now Even More Thoroughly Debunked By Studies

[Louis Proyect]

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/reinhart-rogoff-debunked_n_3361299.html


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[Marxism] Answers needed in death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev acquaintance - The Washington Post

[Louis Proyect]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/answers-needed-in-death-of-tamerlan-tsarnaev-acquaintance/2013/05/30/36cec7f4-c96d-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html


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[Marxism] precursors to occupygezi

[Andrew Pollack]

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The media is full of reports about the spread of Occupy to Turkey, and the
bravery of those facing brutal repression.

When I asked a Turkish-American friend -- an undergrad -- who's there right
now what she's seeing, she mentioned that Turkey has a long history of
revolt.

Which Louis and others on this list know full well. Even I, who don't
follow the country as closely as I'd like, have seen many stories of labor
militancy in recent years.

I think it would be good to be able to point folks to articles on this
history.

Typing "Turkey" in the internationalviewpoint.org site brings up dozens of
articles. I'm sure NLR has had some too.

Andy

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